Happy Birthday Santana Lopez
by thisneverhappened
Summary: AU Brittana. Every year Santana Lopez spends her birthday the same way.


Title: Happy Birthday Santana Lopez

Pairing(s): Brittany S. Pierce/Santana Lopez

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Nom.

Spoilers: Maybe.

Summary: AU Brittana. Every year Santana Lopez spends her birthday the same way.

Author's notes: Partially based on the roleplay Tumblrs .com and .com. Some details may not be entirely faithful to the rp Tumblrs due to faulty memory and/or posts of theirs that I may have missed. I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies and embellishments. I realize I have taken quite a few liberties because I am a giant ball artificially sweetened fluff. Un-beta'd.

...

Every year Santana Lopez spends her birthday the same way. And every year the best part of her birthday is Brittany.

Santana moves to Lima when she's six years old after her papi is offered a promotion from Lima Memorial Hospital to Chief of Surgery. She's absolutely livid that she has to move away from all her friends and her home in Puerto Rico to a strange new land all because of her papi's job. The same job that is constantly taking him away from her is now taking her away from everything she knows.

The other children are immediately intimidated by the set frown on her face. Even without her off-putting demeanour, her inability to communicate with them deter the children who are adventurous enough to approach the dark-skinned little girl. Her mami has been teaching her English since she was three, but her English is still muddled at best. Not only is she resentful that she is being forced to use this inferior language, Santana is also embarrassed by her incompetence to speak it so she says as little as possible.

For the first two days at her new school Santana sits by herself during recess and lunch in the courtyard. On her third day of school it takes exactly 73 minutes for a blue-eyed Dutch girl, who has been absent with a cold, to completely infiltrate the disgruntled Puerto Rican transfer student's heart. Brittany says 'I Love You' after 72 minutes spent in her company and Santana Lopez echoes those words after 73. They don't need words to communicate, Brittany just smiles and Santana Lopez is hers.

...

They become inseparable, their identities so intertwined that the other children have given them their own portmanteau. Both in personality and physicality they're night and day, but they somehow manage to complement each other. Whereas Santana is hot-tempered and meticulous, Brittany is mild-mannered and impulsive. Whereas Santana enjoys video games, Brittany enjoys cartwheels. Nobody really questions why their friendship works, it just balances out.

Spending so much time together, Brittany finds out pretty quickly that Santana's parents aren't like hers. While Brittany's parents are free-spirited and generally leave the young blonde to her own devices, they let her know regularly that she's dearly loved. Santana's parents love her, Brittany is so sure because Santana is entirely lovable after all, but they're absent and not entirely affectionate. Santana's papi is a well-respected surgeon who spends more time at his hospital in two weeks than he spends at home in a year. Alejandro Lopez loves his family, especially his little girl, but according to his rationale his family can survive without seeing him for a while but his patients can't. Santana's mami has a similar work ethic as a social worker, and when she's not fixing other people's families, then she's taking care of Santana's younger brother Jorge.

Brittany does her best to tell Santana she loves her as often as possible just to make sure that Santana never forgets it. She may not be the sharpest crayon in the shoebox but she can interpret the wistfulness on Santana's face when Brittany's mom swipes the bangs out of the blonde's eyes and kisses her softly on the forehead after dropping her off at school. So with Santana's papi on-call at the hospital and her mami doing rounds on all the local foster homes, Brittany feels it's her duty to make her best friend's birthday a special experience. She carefully plans their entire day to keep her bestie's mind off of her neglectful parents.

Brittany and Santana conveniently live on the same street. They're not supposed to stray from their block, but Brittany thinks this momentous occasion calls for the risk. Besides, the park containing her favourite duck pond is less than a ten minute walk from their street anyways. Equipped with a bag of bread, two grapce juice boxes, and two packages of Skittles, Brittany is armed and ready to go. She waits until her babysitter is distracted before making her escape. Julie is a high school student who likes to talk on the phone with her boyfriend instead of watching her so it's relatively easy for Brittany slip out unnoticed. The blonde doesn't understand why Julie enjoys talking to boys so much,_ they're icky_, but she's grateful because it gives her the opportunity to sneak off and play with her Sanplushie.

"Where we goin', B?" Santana asks excitedly when Brittany gets to her house to pick her up, her hand snug in her best friend's tight grip.

Brittany shakes her head frantically, blonde hair whipping around like cool epilepsy, "No way! I can't tell you or it won't be a 'prize, silly!"

Santana furrows her brow but shrugs. She trusts her best friend.

When they get to the pond, Santana internally sighs. She should have known that Brittany would drag her to The Duck Pond. It's Brittany's favourite spot in the entire world. The brunette knows that Brittany means well but that she doesn't quite grasp that her favourite place to visit isn't necessarily Santana's favourite as well. Nevertheless, they have a good time feeding the duckies even though Santana spends more time watching Brittany than she does feeding the ducks.

...

On their way home from the The Duck Pond Brittany and Santana discuss Pokemon, Santana's favourite television show and video game. The Puerto Rican is partial to Charmander, _he's pretty badass_, but Brittany is a faithful water Pokemon user. It's an ongoing contention between them.

"But fire is so much cooler than water. Water is boring, fire is totally rad!" Santana insists, a little miffed that Brittany has just compared Charmander to a toaster oven.

"But duckies swim in water and-" Brittany pauses mid-sentence when she hears a faint scuffling noise.

Scritch, scritch. "Mew!"

Brittany spots the dilapidated cardboard box sitting next to the bus stop shelter first. She grabs Santana's hand and sprints over to it. Peering over the sides she finds an orange striped kitten shivering pitifully and pawing at the cardboard walls confining it. It appears to be underweight and its fur is lightly matted with dirt.

"San, look! A kitty!" Brittany cries out while simultaneously reaching into the box to grab the mewling kitten.

"Brit, put it back! It might be sick or diseased so you shouldn't touch it," Santana scolds. She already has a bad feeling gnawing in the pit of her stomach.

"We can't leave 'im out here, San! Kitties need food and water and love and hugs to survive! I know things," Brittany argues, bottom lip jutting out stubbornly. Even at seven years old Santana can read the resolve in her blonde counterpart's eyes.

Santana sighs warily, already knowing she's fighting a lost battle, "But your dad won't let you have any more pets after you forgot to feed your hamster, and you know my mom is allergic to pets."

Brittany ignores her brunette companion and continues to stroke the kitten. Scratching under the tabby's little chin she coos, "You're so super cute."

Santana sighs again but eventually acquiesces and lightly pets the kitten's head, "Well, it needs a name then. Is it a boy cat or a girl cat?"

"Yay! Thank you, Sanplushie! I don't know, but I'll love 'im whether he has boy parts or girl parts anyway."

With the tabby already snuggled contently in Brittany's arms they continue on their way home. Brittany still has a lot more planned for them. Later that night Santana dutifully turns The Fox and the Hound off before Copper leaves on his hunting trip and the sad parts kick in before falling asleep to the sound of Brittany's explaining proper bathroom etiquette to their new feline friend. It's the first time in seven years where Santana isn't lonely on her birthday.

...

They decide that Santana will keep the kitten at her house, and after nearly five days of harbouring the tiny fugitive in her room, Karina Lopez catches Santana elbow deep in the tub attempting to give the cat a bath. The next day finds Brittany clutching the orange fuzzball to her chest, baby blues slowly filling with tears, standing in front of her parents. They finally concede, both unsure if they are adopting the kitten to end their daughter's despair or to escape the heated glare of a seven-year-old Hispanic girl.

And that's how Brittany obtains her cat, Ooc, who sometimes reads her diary and answers questions on her online Tumblr blog. Apparently he's studying to become a librarian which may explain why he spends so much time reading Brit's diary. Santana's not entirely sure where Brittany gets the name Ooc came from, but she does know that she loathes the cat for all the many, many orgasms it has denied her.

After her seventh birthday it unintentionally becomes a ritual for them to spend Santana's birthday the same way ever year. Grape juice boxes and Skittles, a trip the to The Duck Pond, watching Disney movies cuddling on the couch, and then falling asleep with Brittany's arms wrapped around her and warm breath on her neck.

...

Each year Santana reminisces on her favourite birthdays. There are a few select birthdays that really stand out. Of course there's her seventh birthday, the one that started their yearly tradition. Another is Santana's tenth birthday. Brittany thought turning double digits was particularly eventful and needed to be marked forever as a day of truly epic proportions. Brittany being Brittany and still nine years old, the words that she actually used to convince Santana of this were, "San! San, yer gonna be two! You're a woman now!" while waving her pale arms around manically. They were both grounded for a week after their mothers caught site of the state of their cosmetic kits and the colourful explosion that used to be Santana's face. The miniskirt was probably pushing it.

Santana's most memorable birthday to date, however, is probably her sixteenth birthday. Brittany had two very specific ideas in mind for what she wanted to give Santana that year: her virginity and an orgasm. Luckily for the Puerto Rican, both presents went hand in hand, and Brittany called it a resounding success. It's the best present she's ever received, aside from Brittany's heart that is. Santana rolls her eyes and has to resist the urge to slap herself for being such a sappy cliche.

But this year she's turning seventeen. When Santana wakes up on her day of birth on a warm Friday morning, she already knows it's going to be a fantastic day. She hasn't had a birthday that wasn't utterly amazing since she was six. Her birthdays are essentially Make-Brittany-Happy days, but that's fine with her. When Brittany's happy, she makes Santana _very_ happy. Santana still isn't sure if the blonde still hasn't caught on to the fact that doing things that make Brittany happy only makes Santana happy because she gets to witness Brittany's smile, but it doesn't really matter either way.

After her morning routine and changing into her Cheerios uniform, Santana stumbles into her kitchen and spots Jorge slurping down the last of the sugary milk left over in his bowl from his Fruit Loops.

"Hey turd," she taunts her little brother while ruffling his hair playfully.

He wisely chooses to keep his mouth shut although he does huff quietly in annoyance. His favourite past time may be harassing his irritable sister but he's not suicidal. Nobody messes with Santana on her birthday unless they want a black eye. He manages to escape unscathed as she turns to rifle through through the cupboards for something edible. Bypassing the baby pink teapot with 'Sanpot' scrawled across it in black marker, Santana grabs the box of Chocolate Fudge Pop-tarts.

When she hears a honk from outside, Santana finishes vacuuming down her breakfast of HBICs and quickly disposes of her plate into the sink. Grabbing her backpack, she's out the door less than a minute later.

Brittany's waiting outside her house parked on the curb in her car. The dancer hands her a grape juice box and a package of Skittles when she settles into the passenger's seat. _She's nothing if not consistent,_ Santana muses affectionately before giving her girl a wet kiss. Brittany grins at her normally surly girlfriend who is all smiles this morning.

Brittany takes Santana's hand and drops a kiss on her knuckles, "Happy birthday, baby."

...

After school they stop by Santana's house to drop off their bags, change their clothes, and grab some bread before heading to The Duck Pond.

The house is, of course, empty. No Ooc up her ass, no Hat cockblocking her, no parents, no siblings, just Brittany and Santana.

Santana slips her arms under Brittany's and wraps them around her waist, her wrists crossing over each other as she clasps her hands to trap the other girl in her arms. Brittany turns her head to look into Santana's darkening brown eyes. The blonde bites her lip coyly, eyelashes batting coquettishly.

"You wanna maybe stay home tonight instead, babe?" Santana half asks and half pleads. Santana Lopez is not above begging for sex when it comes to a certain blonde dancer with washboard abs. Brittany doesn't answer verbally, but she does smirk and lick her lips teasingly.

_Yeah_, Santana thinks as she leans in to kiss impossibly soft lips, _birthdays are pretty boss_. She makes a mental note to brag about her day to all the cyber nerds on Tumblr later. Right now she's got some awesome birthday sex to indulge herself in with her more than willing girlfriend who is now sucking on her tongue.

When Santana turns seventeen years old, she breaks a ten year tradition. But that's okay, it's totally worth it.

End


End file.
